The present invention relates to equipment for testing the operation of sensor modules designed to conduct surveillance of the earth and the surrounding atmosphere from a position in space.
Systems for monitoring activities on the earth and in the surrounding atmosphere have been constructed and deployed in space for many years. Some such systems are designed to map the surface of the earth, others monitor weather conditions and others monitor events relating to national defense. While the accuracy and resolution of such systems has continually improved over the years certain applications require still greater resolution and real time use of the data. Though precise information regarding the resolution of images returned from orbiting satellites is not publicly available, it is generally known that LANDSAT (U.S.) and SPOT-G (Fr.) satellites provide resolution sufficient to identify objects 15 meters long. More recently, the Soviet Union has offered to sell images from photographic satellites capable of identifying objects as short as 5 meters long. Because certain applications require real time processing of the images of the observed scene, photographic techniques may be inadequate to satisfy the requirements of those applications. Certain applications require that the satellite imagery be done by means of infrared detector systems electrically connected to processing circuitry. The need for high resolution, high speed processing and reliability in the extremes of the space environment has required designers to press detector and processing technology to the existing limits and beyond. Consequently, the costs of constructing such satellite surveillance systems have become enormous as has the cost of launching such a system into orbit. In view of those costs and the uncertainty associated with such advanced technology it is highly desirable to vigorously test the surveillance system component in a space-like environment in order to reduce the potential for failure in orbit.
The present invention is directed to a technique and system useful to simulate the space environment in which detector modules are deployed, and to simulate the types of images which they are intended to detect and track. The invention is useful to generate various test scenarios and measures the detector module response to each scenario. The response of the module to the various scenarios may then be evaluated to determine the operability of the various detector module components. The test information may be used to replace inoperative detector module components, to facilitate the design of new modules and related support electronics, or to develop methods of processing and prioritizing detection and communication functions associated with the module.